Crimson Angie Davison will soon play college basketball with sister

Friday, Dec. 21, can’t come soon enough for Maple Grove senior guard Angie Davison. That’s the day when her sister Stephanie and the University of Northern Iowa Panthers come to town to play the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers at Williams Arena.

“We are trying to get a big fan club to see if we could get more away fans than home fans,” Davison said with a big laugh.

Angie Davison of Maple Grove, right, will join her sister Stephanie on the University of Northern Iowa basketball team next year. (Photo by Rich Moll)

Davison may be a Minnesotan but her allegiance to the Panthers is easy to understand. Not only is her sister playing there, next year Angie will also be playing for Northern Iowa.

Many high school athletes agonize when it comes to choosing a college, but it was a relatively stress-free process for Davison, who was recruited by many schools.

“I went to several camps and talked to coaches and visited a couple campuses,” Davison said. “But I liked Northern Iowa so much the first time I went to the campus.”

Having a sister already there made the decision easy.

“That’s a big part of it. That’s one thing that no other schools could offer me,” Davison said. “I love her and I want to play with her more. Also, Northern Iowa offers some of the majors I am interested in and I like the coach’s philosophy and the girls are super nice. So there are other things… Everything just fits. They offered me the end of my sophomore year and I made my decision a few months after that.”

It’s a dream come true for the Davison sisters, who have been very close all their life.

“We are really close. We tried to get our parents combine our bedrooms but they would not let us break the wall down,” Davison said with a big smile.

The two sisters grew up in a basketball family. Their parents Jim and Cori both played basketball at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, so it’s natural that basketball is a huge part of the family.

“If you can’t find us we are probably in a gym somewhere,” Davison said. “They coached me and my sister growing up, my mom in AAU and my dad in traveling. We have pretty much been coached by our parents and our high school coaches.”

Jim and Cori have coached them well as both girls have excelled. Steph was a standout for the Maple Grove Crimson, helped lead the Crimson to two state tournaments and earned a scholarship at UNI. Angie is finishing up her own stellar four-year career as a Crimson and will follow Steph to UNI.

The sisters actually played together for two years at Maple Grove. Angie enjoyed that very much and was kind of sad when Stephanie graduated two years ago. But they never said to each other that they would play college basketball on the same team.

“Not exactly. We never really talked about going to the same college,” Davison said. “We both want to play basketball in college. When she left high school, I was like, ‘I’ll never play with her again.’ Then they offered me and it was awesome.”

Crimson coach Mark Cook is happy to see Davison rewarded because she not only is a fine player but is also a joy to coach.

“Angie is one of the most fun athletes I have ever coached,” Cook said. “She has such a great attitude about life. She plays the game the way it was truly meant to be played. She is a fierce competitor. She is a tenacious defender. She is a hard worker. She is a born leader. She gives it everything she’s got every time she walks on the floor and she does it all with a giant smile on her face. Her infectious personality is so much fun to be around every day. She is one of those special players who makes everyone around her better. I am so happy for her and I know she is going to have a ton of success at the next level when she gets there.”

Davison can’t wait to join her sister at UNI next fall and hang out every day just like in the old days. And they probably don’t have to break down a wall to room together.